Unobtainium Why?

[Meemaimoh]

Rarity = people willing to spend more to have it. Case in point: diamonds vs. glass. They look the same, but people are willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money just to know they have something "special".

(Yes, I know diamond is super-hard and thus useful in ways glass cannot be. But that demand is far lower than the demand for jewellery, and if it were only needed for that then diamonds would be way, way cheaper.)

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

It is a far cry from phlebotinum sadly.

 

[Blatherscythe]

If you've seen Avatar you know that the corporation was their to mine for a shiny substance, unobtanium. The thing is that it is never explained (in the movie) why this shiny metal is so damn valuable. So I ask you, what do you think unobtanium does to make it so valuable? I personally think it's a cure to some form of disease, or maybe cancer.

Edit: Unobtanium is worth 20 million dollars a kilogram.

Unobtainium is a term used by aerospace engineers (like myself, a freshman in aerospace engineering) to describe a substance that doesn't exist, is expensive or is not available in high enough quantities, but at the same time is needed for a new design.

In the movie Avatar, unobtainium is a naturally-occuring room temerature super conductor. The properties of said object would be 1) the ability to transfer electric current with 100% effieciency (as opposed to current high-voltage wires which have ~50% effieciency over long distances.) and 2) levitation in a magnetic field. Which is why you see the floating islands, and the floating rock in Selfrige's office.

in short, Unobtainium is a room temperature superconductor. If that existed 20 million per kilo would actually be kinda cheap.

Give this guy a prize, he's correct. Still keep posting what you thought it was for. By the way your prize is an invisable cookie, enjoy.

 

[Irridium]

It gives you super powers.

 

[Bob the Average]

well for starters the earths unobtanium supply has been nearly exhausted it's remarkably strong and used in high strength polymers and when alloyed with steel or aluminum it's naturally lubricious properties make it a natural choice for moving parts of all kinds. it's use is particularly popular in modern firearms. However it is only found in no-got-ium so supplies are scarce and i think that's part of what James Carmon was commenting on.

 

[RedFox042]

No no No. your getting it all wrong.
They need Unobtanium to make all those damnable awning supports and poles from GTA 4. The ones when you hit them not matter how fast your going, Stop your vehicle Instantly.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

No no No. your getting it all wrong.
They need Unobtanium to make all those damnable awning supports and poles from GTA 4. The ones when you hit them not matter how fast your going, Stop your vehicle Instantly.

So that's what they're made of... quick, to the cash-cow mobile!

 

[Pyode]

Because it is most likely super duper light, super duper strong, super duper flexible and super duper rare... That's probably why it is worth so much...

Considering those are all of the factors that determine a metal's value, I am going to say this ^ is probably right.

Rarity = people willing to spend more to have it. Case in point: diamonds vs. glass. They look the same, but people are willing to spend ridiculous amounts of money just to know they have something "special".

(Yes, I know diamond is super-hard and thus useful in ways glass cannot be. But that demand is far lower than the demand for jewellery, and if it were only needed for that then diamonds would be way, way cheaper.)

Actually, the primary reason we don't use diamonds for more practical uses is that they can only be cut down. They can not be melted down and reformed into new shapes, so each individual diamond is limited to it's original size, which is usually quite small.

It's not about demand. Trust me, if it where physically possible to make diamond windows or diamond knives and blades, people would want them.

 

[Billybarbara]

I belive its what alfred hitchcock used to call a macguffin, it dosent matter what it is but the earth forces want it. But in the intrest of Sci-Fi its probably fuel.

 

[Jebusetti]

Its a tie-in to that other epic movie, "The Core", in which the ship that goes to the centre of the earth is made out of unobtanium... So as bad as the humans seem they are doing it to build a ship to jumpstart the earths core with a nuke and save humanity! or they just want those giant diamonds that are floating around down there, just ask a geologist they will tell you how accurate that movie is and how much they love it.

 

[MR T3D]

for the lulz $

 

[Senrab]

Because the writers we're lazy.

It's not like they had around 15 years or an- OH WAIT!

15 years... 14 of which were spend developing those funky 3D face scanners. Dohoho.

 

[The DSM]

Its like Tiberium.

Except less Brotherhood of Nod and Scrin.

And C&C didnt have giant Blue hippies.

 

[Grand_Arcana]

If you've seen Avatar you know that the corporation was their to mine for a shiny substance, unobtanium. The thing is that it is never explained (in the movie) why this shiny metal is so damn valuable. So I ask you, what do you think unobtanium does to make it so valuable? I personally think it's a cure to some form of disease, or maybe cancer.

Edit: Unobtanium is worth 20 million dollars a kilogram.

It's a joke on you. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unobtainium] Also, you've lost.

 

[Pingieking]

It's not about demand. Trust me, if it where physically possible to make diamond windows or diamond knives and blades, people would want them.

It is physically possible, but not economically feasible You'd need a huge, extremely high pressure and extremely high temperature furnace specifically designed for monocrystal growth.

I like to imagine some more exotic properties for it. What if it's a non-toxic, easily refine-able room temperature superconductor? What if it's a strong metal with a melting point well above that of Hydrogen fusion temperatures? Or the craziest idea, what if it's a monopole? That would be CRAZY AWESOME!

actually unobtainium is an inside joke from the movie industry and shows just how lazy the writing was in avatar: Don't get me wrong it was very pretty, well acted, well designed & had a lot of emotional resonance, but it was really really really badly written. By now 2 out of every 3 readers of this statement have jumped on the respond button to tell me how wrong i am... but before you do, go back and watch the movie again. This time take in the actual writing rather then the pretty pictures.

Back to my main point. Unobtainium is an inside joke from the movie industry & is a term used to describe any plot breaking substance that a movies base concept is built around. Consider it to be the furry little critter in gremlins (because those rules did not make sense), the microchips in small soldiers or the crystal growing crystal in Superman Returns. all these are examples of unobtainium.

-M

That's pretty funny.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

It's what that ship was made out of in "The Core". It converts heat and pressure into electricity, and gets stronger the tougher you treat it.

In acutual fact it's just your standard Maguffin that drives the plot, but is of no actual importance. You could replace "Unobtanium" with "Meringue Nests", and say the Planet Earth is suffering from a crippling Raspberry surplus, and it would have the same effect.

 

[Ekonk]

It is the secret ingredient in hampsterjelly.

Either that or they can record super hi-def hologram porn on it.

I like the way you think.